Teddy Atlas was impressed with what he saw from a heavyweight hitter this past weekend.
The former coach-turned-pundit runs his eyes over almost every fight card that takes place, particularly in the United States, so is well-placed to comment on stars of the game.
Ever-confident in his predictions, Atlas gave Martin Bakole little chance to beat Jared Anderson, saying that it wasn’t a true test for the 24-year-old rising star from Toledo, Ohio.
On his podcast post-fight, Atlas first spoke of the issues Anderson needs to sort if he is to get to the top.
“If you give SugarHill [Steward] a chance I think he’ll correct the mistakes. And what are they? He got caught with uppercuts all night. “
He then heaped high praise on Bakole and compared him to one of the all-time legends of the division.
“And I’ll tell ya, Bakole did look like George Foreman. Big, strong, set his feet, let Anderson make mistakes then he timed him. He showed experience, determination, a hunger, a pride to make it for his country. He’s [31], he knows now’s the time to do it and he did it. I hope he becomes heavyweight champ, that’s how much he impressed me, and that’s how much I want to apologise for being wrong about him.”
Foreman and Bakole share thudding power and the unique willingness to let shots bounce off them as they make their way in. If the 31-year-old can emulate half the success of ‘Big’ George over his campaign he’ll have done well.
Bakole’s claim as the most avoided heavyweight is quickly proving to be true. He has his sights set on Zhilei Zhang next, but that looks unlikely to happen.
